Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Wikimedia Nigeria Foundation Inc- Annual Activities 2023

Feedback from the Middle East and Africa Regional Funding Committee on your proposal

Dear User: Olaniyan Olushola and User: TCells,

Thank you for taking the time to submit your application. We continue to see the value of your work in the movement including the Oral history component and the Microgrants programs which are much appreciated. We look forward to learning about the impact of the projects in the upcoming reports and certainly in future reports.

To support us in the next phase of our review process, please see our comments, thoughts, and questions and kindly provide your input and response;

• Based on our review, we are keen on understanding if the timeline dedicated to the projects is sufficient to achieve the set program objectives. We advise reviewing the projects to make sure we are being realistic and that you are not overstretched which could lead to burnout, which we would like to avoid happening.

Thank you for the observation. We are glad to share with you the calendar for the Fiscal year 2023-2024, indicating a clear timeline for each program. We designed the calendar to create a precise time frame showing how long a project will last. Also, we have created an organisational chart that speaks to the personnel need of each project in the annual plan. We have uploaded the calendar and the organizational chart to the Fluxx application.

• We observed that there are good projects and wondered how are you doing the quality assessment of these campaigns given the limited timing. Please note that we ask this question recognizing that we have not seen the mid-point report of your current grant so how you have been measuring the impact of the projects? Please share here what that process has been and if there are any learnings that you hope to bring to this proposal.

Our apologies for the delay in the submission of the mid-term report. It was due to how we interpreted the timeline for the report due date. It is now available for your review. We have evaluated some of our key programs such as the Naija Office Hour and these have been added to our proposal. While the Wikimedia Nigeria Community Support Grant evaluation is ongoing, the evaluation of the remaining programs will be available at the end of their cycle. In the interim, we have provided an overview of the impact of the Community Support Program on Wikimedia projects, language communities impacted, affected affiliates and members of the various communities (see it here) who received the grant

• We recommend that you focus on the quality of the projects and less on the quantity for long-term sustainable impact. We are also uncertain if you have all the roles needed to implement all the proposed projects shared. Would you elaborate further, ascertaining that indeed you have the capacity needed to implement the projects and maybe share a staffing plan and team structure to support our review?

Our programmatic design for 2022-2023 intends to focus on six main areas; Campaigns, Contest, GLAM, Wiki-education, Training and Community Support. The ideas were well thought of by our executive members with provision for the right skill set to manage the roles. Unlike the previous proposal, a program lead coordinates the process for effective control, management, evaluation and reporting.We have uploaded the organizational chart on Fluxx for your review.

Staffing plan

SN	Roles	Project responsibility	Skills required	Number of staff required	Estimated start date	Duration required FY 2023-2024	Status
1	Program Director	Leading team, design project, monitor implementation, supervises staff members, and organize trainings	Program management	1	1st April 2023	2023-2024	Paid position
2	Community Resource	Oversees our networks and WikiFanclubs across the nation. Support the registration of fanclubs in Nigeria universities, Mediates in conflict resolution	community management, mediation, and resource allocation skills	1	1st April 2023	2023-2024	volunteers
3	Community Manager	Oversee all tasks in the community, grant writing, connecting partners, and final reporting of activities	Community management, grant-making, and partnership experience	1	1st April 2023	2023-2024	volunteers
4	Grant Officer	Manage Wikimedia UG Microgrant	Grant-making	1	1st April 2023	2023-2024	Paid position
5	Learning and evaluation strategist	Manages surveys, and writing of evaluation report	project evaluation	1	1st April 2023	2023-2024	Paid position
6	Book keeper	Keeping proper records of all financial activities	Accountancy and book keeping	1	1st April 2023	2023-2024	Paid position
7	Social Media Manager	Manage social media activities	Social media	1	1st April 2023	2023-2024	volunteers
8	Training facilitator	leads trainings, and mentoring of new editors	Strong knowledge of the Wikimedia project	5	1st April 2023	2023-2024	volunteers

• We were keen to learn how you are ensuring that the microgrants program doesn't overwhelm the user group and that the program is connected to other activities. We are also keen in understanding how the program has been working so far and if there are any challenges and opportunities you would hope this particular proposal would help support.

We designed the Microgrant program to complement the Wikimedia Foundation Rapid Grants and provide an inclusive, diverse and engaging program for all the community members in Nigeria. We set up a community-driven grant committee to support the review of the application and recommend funding. The grant review committee comprises community members from diverse language groups and different regions of Nigeria. Our program director currently supports the committee, and we hope to hire a program officer to help the program better. The committee meets monthly to review all the submitted applications. The grant application process cycle runs from the 1st to the 15th of every month, and it is followed by a joint session to review and recommend applications for funding. We have attached a document reflecting the program's impact on Wikimedia projects, languages, community members, and invested resources. A further review will be made available at the end of this annual program.

The program is currently running smoothly but needs additional staff support. We are working on the program evaluation, and a detailed evaluation report will be published at the end of the grant cycle.

Challenges

1. When we started the program initially, many community members were not ready to apply for it because they considered USD 500 too small and they could access larger funds at the WMF to fund the same project. But with support from the WMF who does a pretty good job in directing them to access the microgrants, it’s now a popular program among the community members. But we are increasing the amount to a maximum of USD 1,000 based on community feedback and our evaluation report.
2. Some of the grantees are new to Wikimedia projects and still find reporting difficult but we are keeping the reporting as simple as possible to avoid discouraging applicants. We also dedicate time to train applicants on event organizing, metrics tracking and reporting.
3. In most cases, applicants request funds beyond our approved limit with a good reason to justify their application. This scenario increases traffic on WMF's Rapid Grant process but if we increase the funding limit to USD 1,000, that would be impactful.
4. The received applications sometimes exceed the threshold per month.

Opportunities

1. The microgrants would help to reduce the influx of rapid grant
2. The microgrant would help to promote collaboration between individuals and the Wikimedia UG Nigeria
3. It would help to check unnecessary exaggeration of budget submitted at Rapid grant
4. It would promote effective monitoring of the project implementation

• As you continue to grow we are keen to understand your plan for leadership development and nurturing robust structures for healthy governance including financial management systems in your organization. We would like to know what you have put in place so far and where you envision the organization heading and the plan to get there.

The Wikimedia User Group Nigeria is incorporated as a charitable organisation in Nigeria with a total of nine (10) trustees who supervises the staff members. Currently, we have a paid Program Director, an Accountant, an Intern who manages our social media, and a volunteer Executive Director who manages the organisation. We also have some of the board members in their volunteer capacity supporting our activities. This is our current structure, as shown in our organisation chart. We plan to hire a program officer to help our micro-grant program. We are developing a leadership development plan to drive our organizational growth and professional development strategically. This leadership plan and its implementation strategy will be ready and published by March 2023. This would help us define the type of leaders we need and align our staff members' career vision with your organizational needs and the needs of our community. We want to build a result-oriented organisation driven by good leadership, decentralized decision making and robust structure, people who share the core values of our mission, documented work processes and functioning systems, and a culture that creates an enabling environment for community growth and development.

We adhere to accounting best practices and comply with Nigeria's financial regulations. We have established consistency and transparency in our financial reporting, and this is done based on a standard operating procedure for financial management. To increase the effectiveness of our financial system, we have introduced internal control (including SOPs) into our financial practices.

• Lastly, we encourage you to review the metrics section to also align with the learning questions you have indicated. What metrics can you use to help you capture what you need to support your learning?

We highly recommend you get in touch with the regional program officer to support you in understanding the questions raised or if you find it useful to meet with the committee as well, please them know and they can organize a conversation meeting.

Thank you and we look forward to receiving your responses to support us in the next steps. On behalf of the MEA Regional Committee and Staff--VThamaini (WMF) (talk) 17:35, 24 October 2022 (UTC)

Additional context: Increase in budget

We acknowledge the increase in our budget for this application compared to the last budget. We want to provide additional context on why we are increasing the budget. Also, we have highlighted some of the recent budget changes in yellow.

We have introduced new projects, office space, and staff this round. The changes are highlighted below.

• WikiLibrary: This is a new project we are coordinating with the National Library of Nigeria. This project would be coordinated precisely by a Wikipedia in Residence who will work for 120hrs/3 months at USD 3,600. Other operational costs amount to USD 2,250, totaling USD 5,850.

• Wikimedia UG Community Support Fund (microgrant): Considering this program's success and feedback from the community and past grantees, we have increased our microgrant per project from USD 500 to USD 1,000. The budget for this program in the last round was USD 5,000, but we funded about 20 applications totaling USD 10,000. This year, we have increased the budget per project from USD 500 to USD 1,000 and are funding up to 50 applications totaling USD 50,000.

• International travel for conferences: We have budgeted a total of USD 5,000 for the trip this round. Last year, we didn't include this on the budget due to restrictions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Office space: We did include a budget for office space last year but have yet to be funded. We have justified the need for office space during our meeting with Veronica, as this is not only a legal requirement in Nigeria but a requirement for some organizations to partner with us. We lost an enormous partnership in the last round because we needed physical office space. That was not good for our branding, and we are introducing that this year. The total amount of the setup is USD 17,000

• Train the Trainer: This is a new strategy to improve our capacity-building plans. We will organize the program in all six geographical zones in Nigeria. Aside from the previous and therefore include; Flight, accommodation, feeding, and local trips for three facilitators assigned for the project. These cost total: of $16290. -Program Officer for Wikimedia UG microgrant: To increase the program's performance and efficiency, we are hiring a program officer to manage the microgrant. The annual salary of this personnel is USD 6,480 - Knowledge Transfer Initiative- We plan to coordinate the new initiative with the knowledge-sharing team at WMF as a platform for sharing knowledge among Wikimedia affiliates. We created a new budget line for this purpose in the budget. The total cost of the program is $29,500

Thank you for the feedback. As mentioned, we have replied to your requests and the reasons for the shift in our budget. Olaniyan Olushola (talk) 23:34, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

Wikimedia Community Fund approved in the amount of 210000 USD

Hello User: Olaniyan Olushola and User: TCells, ,

Congratulations! Your grant is approved in the amount of 210,000 USD, with a grant term starting May 2023-April 2024.

Thank you for submitting your application seeking General Support Funds - Wikimedia Community Fund. The Middle East and Africa Regional Committee and Staff have reviewed your application and recommended funding in the amount $210,000 for the period of May 2023 - April 2024 .

We continue to see the impact of your work in Nigeria and in the continent and beyond and towards contributing to the mission of the movement. We appreciate your effort in putting together a comprehensive proposal and mid-point report that supported our review process. We are pleased to see the impact in projects such as the oral history documentation, capacity building and mini-grants programs amongst others.

We approve of your request for an office space and remain keen on learning about the resulting outcomes and especially in supporting in growing partnerships to strengthen your work. We also agree on the requested increase for the mini-grant support to support increased interest. We however recommend that you work on strengthening this programs especially towards more accessibility [ communicate more about the program], accountability and transparency - maybe having a dashboard or space where people can see what has been funded and review project reports. We approve of having a role dedicated to this program.

We also saw your additional program - Knowledge initiative and share the following observations; we felt the prgram is still at an early stage and has potential to be piloted first before being fully scaled. We are of the opinion that if well planned that it can be incorporated into the capacity building program and especially with the additional funding requested on the capacity building program.

We once again, encourage you to take and to create spaces and process that invite reflection and learning . Please take time, effort in building and implementing your leadership development strategies. These take time and intentionality to achieve and need to be priroritized as well.

We appreciate your work and remain committed to supporting your continued growth and development, as an organization and community.

We wish you the very best in your work and look forward to learning more about the impact you achieve.

Best regards from the MEA Regional Committee and Staff --Aristidek5maya (talk) 12:17, 1 December 2022 (UTC)